SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast, brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each week our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan.

SPEAKER_02: 0:27

Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined as always with Pastor Tim. And Tim, yesterday was just an incredible day here at Fresh Win.

SPEAKER_01: 0:37

I'm still, I'm still riding high.

SPEAKER_02: 0:40

Yeah. Nineteen people uh got baptized yesterday. I think that might be Fresh Win record for one day.

SPEAKER_01: 0:46

And then we we held up baptisms for until we got that baptistry. That first time we baptized was pretty big in the old building. I don't know if it was 19. Seems like it was pretty close.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00

Man, a lot of people. It was so so amazing to hear their stories, uh, get to celebrate new life with them. Um and then one of the things that was really cool is you know, you would get ready to baptize, but all these people started coming up, take their pictures. So family just came out to support them. Um and it might have been Shayland and Braxton's family, I think. I couldn't really tell because I was standing off to the side, but after service was over, there's this whole family. There's like 30 people, 40 people, it looked like over there that all came to just support them and celebrate their decision. So that was so exciting. Um, and man, I was I had I forgot my change of clothes out in the car, so I ran outside to get my bag of clothes right before service started. And Dave looks at me and goes, We're full. There's no more parking spaces. And I was like, Oh boy. I was like, Well, park them in front of the garage, put them in the backfield over here. Yeah, we were parking everybody everywhere Sunday. Um, but man, it was that was amazing. And then at the end of it, um, I think what did you say? Five people uh accepted Christ yesterday on top of it. What a day, what a day. So exciting. Uh so I I I think I talked about this at one of uh the last couple baptisms, but man, 17 years or so of of doing this together. And you know, we've had the privilege of baptizing quite a few people. I think in the past couple years we've baptized a hundred people or more, um, which is amazing. Yeah. But it it's the one thing that, man, it never gets old. No, you're never like, you know what I'm sick of? Baptisms. I I brought the uh pump out to start draining the baptismal, and I was like, I wonder if I should you know send out an email, see if we can get anybody else before I drain this thing. Maybe we'll do it again next week.

SPEAKER_01: 2:49

Yeah. Yeah, we we've done that before. Yep. Oh, that's right. I remember that. Do you want me to tell that story? I'll go for it. Oh, man. So this lady couldn't show up for the baptism, something had happened. And then we're like, we'll just leave it up for you uh next week. And uh next week comes along and she says, Oh, my family can't come till next week. Can we leave it up one more time? And we're like, Yeah, sure. Because you know, we're dumb. We know we don't know what's going on. So Friday of the next week, we look in there and there's things growing in there, crawling on the walls.

SPEAKER_02: 3:25

Yeah, there's a reason they make filters for pools. Yeah, we don't have one.

SPEAKER_01: 3:30

Yeah. So yeah, that was um a very slippery baptism. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 3:38

We yeah, we we doused it with some uh chlorine and everything we could trying to get that thing cleaned up. Um well before that, uh well, no, this the time before this last time, they had must have been doing some work around here, and it took us three or four attempts to get the baptism full because we kept filling it up. Remember, it was all that brown water, it looked like lake water in there.

SPEAKER_01: 4:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 4:01

I'm like, I can't put people in this water, they're gonna wonder what kind of parasites are in there.

SPEAKER_01: 4:07

The water line broke down on the corner, yeah. And so we had a lot of sediment in there.

SPEAKER_02: 4:13

You and Joe were running all over the place trying to piece and part something together, and we ended up with a filter.

SPEAKER_01: 4:19

We did. We we Joe and I built a filter. Joe mostly built the filter, and and it worked, it got all that stuff out of there, and uh so now you got the cleanest water that you can be baptized in. Every every baptismal fill-up is through that filter.

SPEAKER_02: 4:36

So yeah, clean as clean as can be. Um, but it was I made a little bit of a mistake here because Friday I sent Ty to school. He can drive now, and so I sent him to school with you know all of his siblings in the car, and then about 10 a.m. rolls around and I go, Oh, I didn't set up the baptismal and I can't go anywhere. I'm stuck at home with no car. And so Saturday morning I left the house, 6 a.m., ran up here, set the whole thing up, filled it up, got it heating. And usually it takes about 24 hours to get warm, but I usually have it heating up for two days. Well, I had 24 hours on the nose. And I told the people in the pre-service meeting, I was like, Yeah, the water's one of them said, Is it warm? I was like, Ah, it's usually right around 90 degrees. One of the ladies gets in the water yesterday, she goes, This is not 90 degrees.

SPEAKER_01: 5:32

You know what? Here's here's a great plug for that. Right now, people, you need to uh pray and ask God what he wants you to do about this, because leaving Ryan in charge of the baptism always ends up in some kind of panic right before. So we need a baptism crew. We only do it four or five times. And if you can't be at church all the time, and this might be the job for you if you want to serve here, is just put out that baptismal and get it filled up and make sure it's warm. Teresa said, Is that gonna be enough time to get that pool warm? And I said, I don't care.

SPEAKER_02: 6:09

Yeah, I stepped in and I'm like, okay. I mean, it wasn't cold, but it wasn't 90.

SPEAKER_01: 6:14

Yeah, Teresa. Teresa said, You need to take that down. I said, We need to leave that heater on there for till the last second. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 6:22

Which we did. And that's another thing we need we need help with. We need a baptism crew for sure. Yeah. If you're interested in that, please shoot us an email. Stop Tim or I on a Sunday and say, hey, I I can do this. Uh because yeah, I walked in there right before church started. We're still tearing out water hoses and heaters and good night.

SPEAKER_01: 6:40

Yeah, if you would have done that on Thursday, it'd have been nice. But it's all, you know, we're always uh we are under pressure. We always have resistance, and uh there's always something trying to stop what we're doing here at A Fresh Wind. And uh that's the easy stuff. And so if one of you uh men or women say, Hey, I want to do that, um come in and do it, and you can solve a lot of consternation over here amongst the pastors.

SPEAKER_02: 7:14

Either that or sell tie a car for real cheap. Those are your options. Yeah. No, man, it to be honest, worth it completely. When you witness all that, you're like, it was worth getting up early, it was worth all the videos, you know, sit getting those edited. Because man, it's just so exciting. Um, and then I know I told you because you were preaching that day, I was like, man, you might only need to preach 10 or 15 minutes. I mean, with all the videos, badges, this is gonna take some time. Um, and so I think you said you put three or four sermons together and you're like, oh, I'll just start dropping them off as needed.

SPEAKER_01: 7:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 7:52

And so today uh you did, you had to drop some off. And I thought we could pick up kind of where you left off on Sunday. Um, and so why don't you give everybody a little bit of a recap in case they missed the sermon on Sunday, what we were talking about, and then we'll we'll kind of dive into what you couldn't get into.

SPEAKER_01: 8:10

Well, we started talking, uh started off talking about renunciation, forsaking your old life, and talked about the early church and how they would um start baptism before they would even let you get in the water. Um they sent you to school to make you really understand what salvation was before they would let you be baptized. It's very critical to them that you didn't link your salvation to your baptism. It was a big deal. And uh then they would have this like renunciate uh renunciation renunciation ceremony right before you got in the water, and they'd make you turn towards the west as the sun, you know, that's where the sun sets, so that's towards darkness. So it's a symbolism of facing Satan, not you know, standing behind Jesus, you alone standing up there and forsaking him, renouncing Satan, all his uh demons or all his spirits in all his ways. And then you would turn um to the north or to the east um where the light comes from, and you would uh pledge your loyalty to Jesus. And then they'd let you be baptized. Um so um I wanted to preach a sermon, so we didn't do all that. We just got in water and got it done. But um it was it's it it's something that we've kind of left off uh uh baptism for I don't know, it's been let's see, Searle was in 300 AD, so we're talking sixteen hundred years ago, you know, it it started um people started not putting that emphasis on it. And it's something um the Lord reminded us the week before, and uh, hey, what about this? What about this? It was coming from all different directions, and I'm like, Lord, what are you trying to say? And um and this is something that is probably good for everybody to renounce Satan.

SPEAKER_02: 10:20

Yeah, I I think it's it's something that especially if you grew up in church and you kind of have an idea of what baptism is, um, you kinda understand that this is a part of it, you know, it's kind of part of the package. Um but baptism is is largely for new believers. And I mean, there's people been following Jesus a long time and haven't taken that step yet. Um but you know, for a lot of people, it's man, I accepted Christ and I need to be baptized. Um and I I remember you brought this to me, like, well, what do you think about this? Um and you know, my mind immediately goes to Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, um, and Philip shares the gospel with them. He says, Why shouldn't I be baptized? So you should be baptized, let's go down and do it. And we don't read, you know, this renunciation thing. But when we're saying Jesus is Lord of my life, that means he sits at the top, and I my allegiance is solely devoted to him. Um and so I thought, man, this while it it's part of church history and we don't necessarily see it explicit as part of the baptism ceremony in scripture, there's a whole lot in scripture about this. Um so one of the things we do before um anybody gets baptized on a Sunday morning, have a pre-service meeting, and so we go over there, and this is probably if you're being baptized the third or fourth time they've heard it, but we talk about the meaning of baptism and it's how it's not salvation, it's a you know, uh symbolic act of what God has already done and what you know, going under the water and being, you know, brought out uh symbolizes and um all that. But one of the things we did um is we added this renunciation at baptism to that pre-service meeting. Um, and so I I read them to them from Second Corinthians um where Paul wrote, Therefore, since we have this ministry, because we were shown mercy, we do not give up. Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone's conscience by an open display of the truth. And so there is this I renounce these old, sinful, shameful things, and I am openly declaring the truth that Jesus is Lord of my life. And so I thought, man, this is this is awesome. We need to, we need to have people make this declaration for them so that they know, man, I've done this. This is something I can stand on. And so I asked them on Sunday, question number one, do you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And they all said yes. I said, if you can't say yes to these two questions, you need to see me after class. Um But I said, as long as you can respond in the affirmative, say yes. And they all said yes. And then I asked them, Do you renounce the devil and all he offers? And they all said yes. And so there is this, I am turning away from my allegiance to the enemy. And scripture talks about how we were slaves to the enemy. Um, you know, we we walked in darkness. The God of this air had blind blinded our minds, and so I am forsaking all of that, and and I'm turning towards Christ. And then when we baptize people, I added that little phrase because you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, forsaking all others, um, I baptize you. And it again, just that reminder, I have turned from those things towards Christ.

SPEAKER_01: 13:45

And it's uh kind of the package, it's it rounds off the package. We always talked about baptism being a symbol, uh, like a ring. And um taking your ring off doesn't mean you're not married anymore. Uh, but that ring tells everybody else whose you are. And uh this the Lord leaned on us a little bit and it and it it plays right into what we're talking about, because in every marriage ceremony you forsake all others, right? And so this is actually a declaration of war. And uh because you're changing sides, you are standing up and saying, I am no longer following this old way or following whoever was leading in in that old way. I am changing sides, uh, and I'm I'm gonna declare for the Lord and against Satan. And that's what baptism is, and uh we need to re-grasp that as the church.

unknown: 14:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:58

It's a declaration of war. Well, when uh the sermon that I didn't preach uh talked about what happens when you when you change sides, and because now suddenly you've made a vow against the ruler of the prince of the power of this heir, Satan, and uh all beings that are against God. So uh for those of you who are baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. That's Galatians 3 27. When you stand up and and be baptized, you're just you're showing off your garments. You know, uh this is the uniform I wear, Christ's righteousness. It's right here. And you're basically saying, bring it on. And that's where we get into spiritual warfare. Renouncing your old allegiance means the fight is on.

SPEAKER_02: 15:58

You know, it makes me think of man, this movie's pretty old now, so dating myself a little bit here, but The Matrix, you know, when Neo takes that pill and then he he sits down in that chair and they pop that whatever thing into the back of his head and twist it, you're like, ah. Um, but all of a sudden he goes from sitting in this room to boom, he's right in the middle of a fight. And it's almost like that's kind of the picture I get as we start talking about this. You know, you you're baptized, you go down into the water, you come out, you're raised to new life, and it's like war. And you are right here in the middle of it. Um, and I don't say that to scare you, because the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you. Um you you have nothing to be afraid of, but you're at war. Uh scripture says our our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against these spiritual forces and heavenly realms and heavenly heavenly places. And the Bible teaches that the devil prowls around seeking those he can devour. He he came to steal, kill, and destroy. And that's who he is. And so we have to go to war against all of those things every day. Satan doesn't care that Christians or people come to church, that they hear good sermons, that they put on it's not the fish anymore, whatever. What's that radio station? Caleb. He doesn't care. But as soon as you say, I identify with Christ, I change my uniform, I'm changing my allegiance, I'm switching sides, all of a sudden now he's like, Whoa, yeah, you know, now I care. Um and we need to be prepared uh for that fight.

SPEAKER_01: 17:40

Erwin McManus wrote in his book, The Barbarian Way, which I I suggest it's it's a hundred years old, but um well, not a hundred.

SPEAKER_02: 17:49

I was gonna say Irwin's not a hundred years old.

SPEAKER_01: 17:53

But uh he said, we you know, we get this idea when we hear you're born again that you know a little baby gotta grow. He says, When you're born again, when you're uh regenerated in Jesus, it's like being thrown out of an airplane with a rifle. He says that has nothing to do with being a little kid and growing up. No, you're thrown right into the battle and you're parachuting in like a paratrooper, and you're like, here I am, what do I do? And uh but you've you've joined the fight on Jesus' side, and he's gonna use you to do wonderful things. And that's why I'm so excited about all these people who were baptized yesterday, the just what God is gonna do for them in their fight, in their in their spiritual warfare too. Now many churches engage in deliverance ministries that teach you how to deal with uh authorities, what what's the Bible call them? Authorities, the cosmic powers of this darkness, evil, and spiritual forces in the heavens. So when we say we renounce all others, that's that's who we're talking about. All those um you know, we we try to paint a broad picture with one word, demons. We call all angels angels, but the word angel means messenger. They're not all messengers. Um but here Paul tells us that there's a lot of different things you're renouncing here. There's a lot of things you're you're going to war with. And in the Bible, and this is interesting, there is only one passage of scripture that covers spiritual warfare as a specific way to deal with supernatural forces. And it's Ephesians chapter six.

SPEAKER_02: 19:54

Before you go into that, here's what I would recommend. If you missed a Sermon on Sunday, go back and listen to it because this is it's everything that's leading up to this point. Um and so getting an understanding of what that whole renouncing thing is and what you just said, what we're renouncing when we make this decision, um, that's an important concept to grasp. And then you get here, and this is the okay, well, what is what do I do now? And that's what we're talking about. Um I I think man, the we have not talked and by we, I mean the church at large, um about these our our great enemy, you know. We our our battles are against you know all this superficial, and not that it's superficial. I mean, I know people are going through some stuff, and it, you know, when I say superficial, you're like, well, yeah, it's real to me. Um but I mean scripture's clear. There is another battle, and we just we go through it blindly. Um, you know, it m it what it makes me think of is I was talking to uh a local sheriff one time and he was talking about all this gang activity in Lorraine. And I'm like, well, I grew up in Remillion, and Remillion's right next door to Lorraine. I'm like, I don't remember hearing about any gang activity, and it's all happening, but it's kind of underground a little bit, and unless you're in that world, you don't even know it's happening. We go about it and we we assume that's just what we read about in you know books or we watch on television shows or in the movies, but that's not real. And I think a lot of us we've taken that approach to the spiritual fight that we're engaged in. Yeah, we hear about it in scripture, we've seen some movies or some books about it, but it's not, I mean, it's it's not real. And it's no, this is as real as me and you sitting here having this conversation. And we need to be equipped and prepared on how to engage in fighting that battle, and so that's what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 21:58

And it's important um to have that um prelude to what we're about to talk about because this is not what you see in the movies, this is not what you see at a a church that's having a deliverance um service or something like that. This is this is something for you. Uh I I think sometimes we think that we're in a battle with us and our inability to eat too much or not to eat so much.

SPEAKER_02: 22:30

I was gonna say I I'm definitely not in that battle.

SPEAKER_01: 22:34

But um, you know, and and those things look like they're little things. They're really not little things. And anytime that you have a proclivity towards something that um God has told you I don't want you into, uh Satan's gonna piggyback that proclivity and try to make it possible for you to do do that as much as he can. Uh it's funny, I was um doing some marriage counseling, and I said, You're you you're gonna see this that uh as you guys are waiting to be married, Satan is gonna push you guys to to have sex. And your whole uh this time that you're engaged, you're gonna Satan's gonna push you. He's gonna want you guys to do it. And then as soon as you're married, he's gonna try to pull you guys apart so you don't do it. You know, and I I said, this is this is the kind of stuff that Satan gets involved in and we don't see him. We think it's all us. Right. You know, oh I gotta I gotta fight that temptation, and and then you know, you get married, and then sudden, suddenly you're mad every time it comes up, you know. And it's like, oh, I got a headache or all that kind of stuff. But those are the things that Satan counters the scripture, he counters uh what God wants you to do and uh what God doesn't want you involved in. So he's he's always there, he always comes by to to to beef up the temptation a little bit. And uh, but when we get what we're gonna talk about here, when we get this, I can guarantee you he's not gonna mess with you.

SPEAKER_02: 24:24

Right now, if he can get you to say no on those things that you think are little and it every time you say no, it gets easier. It just gets easier. Every time you ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit, it gets easier. I just told a guy this the other day that when you're in a situation um and the Holy Spirit says this isn't for you, you need to stop and you need to turn around and leave right now. Because if you stay, the next time he tells you that, you're gonna miss it. And you are gonna get yourself in a bad spot. Um and so we this is important to know how to fight.

SPEAKER_01: 25:01

And we've only got this passage of scripture that Paul laid down, and uh it's it's exciting to me that you know we don't have have it showing up all over the place. Um but it it simply says in Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse ten, finally be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in heavens, in the heavens. For this reason, take up the full armor of God, thus so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. And this is this is what we're talking about, baptism is to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with the truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like the armor on your chest, and your feet sandal with the readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray at all times, in the Spirit, with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all saints. Now that is not the Spirit of Christ compels you. And um all the other things we've seen in the movies. And we demonic influence has been a part of Christianity and Judaism from the beginning. Solomon um had a uh a song book that was supposed to be the songs that David sang to Saul to get rid of his demons. And um they call it Psalm 51. You know, Psalm only goes to 150. Um so uh there was all kinds of things in Judaism where they had to deal with these things until Jesus showed up and he just had the authority to command them. And then when we're saved, suddenly Jesus says, I place that authority on you, so you can command them too. But commanding them without this basic part of spiritual warfare, you are gonna get into trouble. And uh so let's let's go over this uh the things that he says here before you jump into that.

SPEAKER_02: 27:52

What you just said was really important. If you don't have this, you're gonna get in trouble. Makes me think, remember when the disciples were trying to cast out that demon, they couldn't get it out, and it was the apostles at this point, Jesus um had already been resurrected. But um those demons, look at them say, Well, I know Jesus and I know Paul. But who are you? Yeah, you know, and this idea like that was the seven sons of schema.

SPEAKER_01: 28:18

Schema, yeah, that's right. And um they were casting out um demons in the in the name of Jesus, and some of them in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches about. And I guess they were kind of successful. Then they went into this guy's house and that demon spoke for them and said, Hey, I know Paul. And I know Jesus, but I don't know you.

SPEAKER_02: 28:47

And this you don't want to get in that situation where you're out there and you're you're not equipped for the fight. This is how you get equipped for the fight. And Paul says here, having prepared everything, in the middle of the fight, you know, when you've got yourself in a situation, that's not the time to start looking for the belt of truth. Right. Absolutely. Where's my belt? You need to have that thing on and ready to go. Uh so having everything prepared. And so this is uh this is how you put on the armor of God and what it all what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01: 29:18

And I just want to say that again, verse the verse 13. Um, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day. That day's coming when you're gonna when you're gonna be facing um a spiritual situation and having prepared everything. Um you gotta you gotta be ready. You gotta be ready. You gotta be um confessed up. You gotta have a your relationship with the Lord, you should be living in truth. We're gonna talk about that in a minute, but this takes preparation and uh you don't wanna get out there if you're not If you're not prepared. I don't know um when it started happening in my life, but every time I felt like I was getting in a um a spiritual battle type situation, I'd always stop. Lord, anything between me and you, I want to confess it. You know, empty me out and fill me with your Holy Spirit. Prepare me for this battle as I go into it. And um Teresa and I pray for our entire team on the way to church every Sunday morning. We pray that um we'd be emptied out and filled with the Holy Spirit and prepared for the battles that we're walking into. And uh we pray that every Sunday on the way to church. And it's something that uh you guys every Christian, I say you guys, uh yeah, the thirty people who listen to this, but I mean every Christian should be really thinking about what it means to prepare. Paul lays it out here. If there's no question of what you need to do, it's all right here. This is spiritual warfare in the New Testament church. Um, first, the belt of truth. When you hear the word belt of truth, what do you think of?

SPEAKER_02: 31:26

Not sure what you're looking for. Sorry, I'm trying to help you.

SPEAKER_01: 31:30

I think that's the the problem with the belt of truth. Everybody goes, What well, what is the belt of truth? It's learning to live in truth and integrity. Why do you think that's important?

SPEAKER_02: 31:50

If we're not living in truth every day. We get bombarded by the lies and we begin to believe and live lies as if they are true.

SPEAKER_01: 32:01

If I told a lie to my wife and it's okay, I was late coming home because I pulled over and went through somebody's trash because I thought I saw something that looked good. And that's kind of embarrassing, and I don't want to tell my wife that. So I tell her, it's a simple lie, right? It's just simple. And I say, Hey honey. Um I'm late uh because so and so wanted to talk to me or whatever, and and I just just tell her a lie. And um but I've been seen. Now you might think, by who? By somebody. Somebody, and if I wouldn't have told her that lie, our relationship wouldn't be at stake. But now I've told her lie, told her that lie. I didn't live in truth and I didn't live in integrity. I should have just said I was doing some, you know, dumpster diving and garbage picking. I should have said that. Now, it doesn't matter. She don't really care if I dumpster dive or uh or anything like that. I mean, if I'm eating out of the dumpster, she had to have it too. But um she she doesn't she does it this is not something that would put our relationship at stake.

SPEAKER_02: 33:23

It's not some deep sin you're involved in.

SPEAKER_01: 33:26

Right. But now, because I told that lie, I didn't live in integrity, I wasn't honest, suddenly it's something that can affect my relationship with her.

SPEAKER_02: 33:38

And quite literally, you you you got caught with your pants down because you didn't have the belt of truth on.

SPEAKER_01: 33:43

Exactly. How's that for a visual? I don't know. I'm I'm trying to wipe it from my head. Um but the point is that suddenly something very small, because you wouldn't live in integrity, becomes something that will deteriorate the trust that your wife has in you. And guess what? Somebody was passing by on a car and says, Yeah, I saw your husband out there digging through some guy's trash the other day. And now she's gonna know. Why? Because Satan is gonna make sure that gets back to her. Integrity, honesty, slipping in uh to someplace you shouldn't go. Um, somebody's gonna see you. It's definitely gonna be on somebody's camera, you know. Um place on your computer that you know you shouldn't go. So there's a bunch of people who know where you went. Well, no, I use a VPN and I've got this. No, come on, grow up. Nobody is letting you go anywhere on their internet without knowing exactly where you go.

unknown: 34:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:50

And so um, I mean, we need to understand that. So uh suddenly the belt of truth holds the whole armor together.

unknown: 35:02

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 35:03

Because there's a demonic force out there who saw what you did, and he's gonna make sure somebody finds out.

unknown: 35:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 35:11

If and for so many of us, it's little things like that. You know, I I didn't murder someone and try to, you know, lie about it. No, it's these things.

SPEAKER_01: 35:19

Dig a hole and bury them. Have you ever have you ever heard uh Nate Barkas? Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 35:23

Just putt a leaf over it. Um it's these little things, but man, it's it's that one thing, you know, Jesus talks about how oh, what is it corrupts the whole, a little bit of yeast? It corrupts the whole thing. You you get this little thing.

SPEAKER_01: 35:39

A little bit of leaven.

SPEAKER_02: 35:40

Yes, that's it. I got it backwards. Um it's these little things, but now when someone says, Oh, your husband liked that mirror, I saw him get out of the garbage. Well, when was that? Oh, Thursday.

unknown: 35:54

Thursday.

SPEAKER_02: 35:56

He said he was late because he was talking to somebody.

SPEAKER_01: 35:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 36:00

Well, what else is he not being truthful of? Exactly. And you have just opened up this whole thing. Because if I couldn't trust you, what a little thing. Yeah. And I can't trust you that with that. How can I trust you with with anything else? It's yeah, it it holds everything together.

SPEAKER_01: 36:17

And um, so how if you're living in lies, there's somebody who knows. The Holy Spirit is not gonna use that against you. He's gonna he'll give you a spanking every now and then. But the truth is the enemy knows you're lying and he's gonna use it against you. Somehow, somehow, if the Holy Spirit doesn't stop it, somebody's gonna find out, and then you're gonna have to deal with that. And we need to be uh the belt of truth is first for a reason.

unknown: 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:53

And I just want everybody to know that we hear that the belt of truth, huh? Yeah, it's the truth of God's word, and and we should tell the truth, I guess. All right, what's number two? No, no, no, no, no. This is the one that holds it together.

unknown: 37:09

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 37:09

If you're going into spirit if we weren't talking about spiritual battle, it it would probably be different. But we're going into a spiritual battle where there's beings that can see your conduct, and you have to be living a life of integrity, or they will use it against you to destroy all your relationships if they can. So the belt of truth holds everything together. Number two, the breastplate of righteousness. Christ's righteousness guards our heart from guilt and shame. We have uh the way we live the Christian life, and and I don't know how it got like this, but I can tell by reading through the historic Christian church that it's always been there. It's always been there. People dealing with guilt and shame. Matter of fact, I saw that movie Paul that uh came out on Netflix or whatever, and you know, he had a a thorn in the side, he called it. He asked the Lord to take it away, and and then the Lord finally said, My grace is sufficient for you, you're just gonna have to live with it. And some people say it was his eyesight, some people say uh um liver damage or whatever, whatever they say. But in this movie, his thorn in the side was remembering all the families that he persecuted, put in prison, and that were eventually killed. And he could not it just haunted him. And I don't know if that's true or not, that's uh artistic license there. We don't know. He didn't say what it was, we don't know if it was eyesight or anything like that. But that guilt and shame thing, even in whenever that came out 2020 or whatever, um we're still worried about it. We're still dealing with our guilt and shame. But we are where in Christ's righteousness, we don't according to God, we don't have any guilt and shame.

SPEAKER_02: 39:20

You know, it makes me think of a a football team, you know, and when you go out and you just you know, you start the game, you're all kind of fired up, you're ready to go, and then they the other team scores. And then you go out, all right, we're gonna get this one back, and you fumble. And all of a sudden you look up and they're up three, four touchdowns, and you just no. How do you fight in that position? Right. When when you are just down and out mentally, you you you don't play the same, you don't block the same way that you were blocking. You don't you don't run your routes as hard as you used to run your routes. Absolutely. What's the point? We're getting our butts kicked. This is embarrassing. And when you show up to fight the Christian life every day thinking, I suck. Yeah, you know, I I can't get past this thing, I can't let that thing go. Then you fight from a place of weakness.

unknown: 40:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 40:18

And Jesus said, My my power, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Let's go. Right. Let's go. And you're like, Yeah, but do you remember that time? And it's like, I've forgiven that. I already paid for that. Let's go. But do you remember when? Yeah, I mean, we just we keep bringing it up and it defeats us, and it defeats us.

SPEAKER_01: 40:41

It's not always us bringing it up either. That's true. We're getting help. That's what we're talking about is this spiritual warfare that we're in. Now, the breastplate of the righteousness. We don't have any guilt and shame. Don't live in guilt and shame. The other side of that is righteousness matters. I tell the forge, I must, I must say it once a month in there. Righteousness, living a righteous life matters. And we we a lot of people are just, oh, we're free in grace. We'll we'll do whatever we want to do and ask God to forgive us later. No, you're in a battle. And you are taking uh the breastplate of righteousness off and laying it on the ground, right? You are vulnerable.

unknown: 41:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 41:32

I heard a pastor one time say, you know, God, God saved you right where you're at. He knew you wouldn't be perfect, he knew you'd never be perfect. God's not waiting on you to be perfect, He's He'll save you. And I'm like, well, that's true, but it's not the whole truth.

SPEAKER_01: 41:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 41:48

Because Jesus Himself said, Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.

SPEAKER_01: 41:52

Righteousness.

SPEAKER_02: 41:53

Righteousness matters. I we all the way back at David. I'm not looking for the sacrifice. I want your obedience more than your sacrifice. Obey me. Obedience and righteousness matters. It matters in your life, matters in the Christian life, following Jesus. And if you're gonna fight in this battle, yes, why would you willingly take off the breastplate of righteousness, the thing that's supposed to protect your chest? I mean, your heart is here. Right. And you lay it on the ground. I mean, yeah, you're completely open, you're exposed, you're vulnerable. All because you want to engage in these things, um, righteousness matters.

SPEAKER_01: 42:33

If you have come to Christianity lately, um, I need to explain this a little bit because uh the word righteous, righteousness and unrighteousness has migrated. That happens in languages, we don't use the same term. Uh now, if you get a modern translation, when it used to say in English, righteous or unrighteous, now they use the term wickedness. And the reason they do that is because righteous and unrighteous has turned into church things. So when you hear that church word righteousness, uh, you're thinking about, oh, he goes to church and you know, he he takes communion and and all that kind of stuff. He's doing church stuff. That's what righteousness is, doing church stuff. No, no, no, no, no. What these what this term is is unrighteousness is wickedness, is being wicked, and righteousness matters. Hey, you know what we're we live in a society of cowboys, and I was listening to um Forrest Hage uh teach um about the church last night, and he had this he had this great illustration, but it's it's who we are in the United States. He said we're not cowboys, we're shepherds. Shepherds don't want to kill and eat the sheep. They'll kill and eat them when they get old enough and they they're not growing the wool, but they want to keep them alive and healthy and do the best they can for them so they can give wool every year as as much as he can. Cowboys, they don't shepherd, they drive the cattle to the slaughter. And he said, that's how we approach church in um the West. You know, we're cowboys, we're independent. I don't have to go to church there. I can worship God in the woods and all that kind. That's cowboyism in church. We're supposed to be shepherds, which is completely different on how you view your church. Isn't that great? And that comes right into this righteousness. Who are you going to be? Because if you don't choose righteousness, your enemy is going to use that against you.

SPEAKER_02: 45:06

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 45:09

So are we going on to the next one? Number three. Number three.

SPEAKER_02: 45:13

It's a good thing you didn't try to fit this in on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01: 45:15

I know. I know. Well, I put these little caveats to get me talking about them. I'm realizing right now they'd have been there forever. There's so much here. Then the shoes of the gospel of peace. And that, first of all, that's the readiness to share the gospel, but it's also stable footing. And we're talking about uh guilt and shame on righteousness, but this is simply I have peace with God. What are you gonna do? I know where I'm going. Uh if you kill me, thank you. If you beat me, I can take that suffering and offer it to Christ. Let's go. You know, you have peace with God. And suddenly you're not afraid of anything. So I love that.

SPEAKER_02: 46:08

Sorry for all my sports illustrations, but here we go. You know, when when you have when you're down and out, and then you get to halftime and your coach comes and he gives that speech, I still believe in you, we still got this, and you've seen it, they go out and they turn around, second half, come back, it's some unbelievable comeback story, and you all started with some guy who said, I believe in you. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when you have peace with God and you can fight from a position of strength, and you're not constantly carrying around that shame and guilt, oh my gosh, man, you're free to live the life that God created you to live. And in part of that, the biggest part of that, like going out and bringing others in. You know, I mean, we are on this rescue mission. There is a world who is who is perishing apart from Christ. And we have been sent and called out into that world to go into all the world and make disciples. That's who, if you're a follower of Jesus, who you that's your marching orders, it's who you're called to be. And we go out, you can have peace with God. This this rebellion, this anonymity that that exists now, He's taking care of it all. You can have peace with God, He can forgive you and set you free from that guilt and that shame. Man, what an incredible message. Um, and and we're called to go out and bring that everywhere we go. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_01: 47:37

Then there's the shield of faith. I'm moving on because I just looked at my watch. We gotta go. Uh, shield of faith. Um your trust in God that He is not gonna leave you out there without artillery and air cover and and reinforcements. We we need to use that shield of faith to quench the fiery dark darts of doubt and accusation. Because Satan is gonna come at you with those things and you need to believe to fight those.

SPEAKER_02: 48:13

What does scripture call them? The accuser of the brethren. Right. Um, and here's here's how why I love how Paul words this here, because we think of the shield as just something I stand behind. It's a very passive sort of thing. Right. Um, it's a noun. But he says, this shield of faith, which you can use to extinguish all the flaming arrows of it, is a verb. This thing has it has purpose. I'm not just sitting here hiding behind the my faith. No, my faith is action, it does something, and it it takes those accusations, it takes those darts, those um arrows that the enemy slings at me and it extinguishes them. No, my God is already taking care of that. Yeah, there is no condemnation because I'm in Christ Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 49:00

In video games, it's called a shield bash.

unknown: 49:03

Nice.

SPEAKER_02: 49:04

I I don't I can't relate to that.

SPEAKER_01: 49:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 49:07

Someone out there, I'm sure, is like, yes, I got it.

SPEAKER_01: 49:10

In the ancient sport of something, it's shield bash there. That works for you. I love that because wouldn't, you know, we we take that the idea that I believe in Jesus um as a a passive thing, that it doesn't it doesn't do anything more. Oh my gosh. Oh, yes, it does. Right. It means you can stick your belief out and run right through the enemy lines and they can't do anything about it. So I love that too. And then the helmet of salvation, that's your assurance of who you are. You know, you put that on and it protects your mind from condemnation, you know, it protects your mind from shame and guilt. It it protect it's always on your head, so you always know it's you can't get used to it, you know, because you're you're always thinking, I'm saved.

unknown: 50:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 50:05

I am his son, his daughter. He's not gonna leave me out here alone.

SPEAKER_02: 50:10

Well, and you know, the the helmet protects our brain, protects our minds, you know. Um, and Paul, he he talks about don't be conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Um, this helmet of salvation is the thing that protects that, that that constantly um keeps us safe from from those lies and the patterns, the deceitfulness of the world.

SPEAKER_01: 50:33

And I'm moving on to verse 17. Sorry guys, we we got hung up on the first two. Yeah, we get we're flying now. Sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Um, it's an offensive weapon to strike down deception. Jesus used it just like we're supposed to. Satan came to him and actually quoted scripture at Jesus, and Jesus said, Oh, I'm sorry. You misunderstood that. This is what it meant in this scripture. And Jesus used the sword of the, the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, to knock down um these different deceptions that are sent to us that sound good, you know, but we got to lean back on scripture and say, oh no, I'm not falling into that mess. I already know the truth. Here it is. And you cut those web of lies down. And there's so many false teachers out there today who's trying to, I don't know, build their own kingdom. I don't know what they're trying to do. But they're under the influence of your enemy. And you need to know the word of God so you can know the truth and let it set you free.

unknown: 51:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 51:44

And not even just within the church. I mean, there's in our culture and society and academia, you know, there there is all kinds of people trying to to establish all things as truth. And it is the word of God that helps us cut through those things. What is truth? Your word is truth. Um, and it's the thing that that pierces between joint and marrow. It is alive and it is active. I tell people all the time, you know, what do you think about and insert any hot topic there? And I tell them all, you don't need to hear my opinion on that, because my opinion doesn't matter. God has already said. He's already said, He's already decided. So I I go with him. Yeah, but what do you think? I think what he thinks. Right? And because if I don't, then there's a problem, and I have to realign. That's that, you know, being transformed by the renewing of your mind. And and parents, especially, you need to model this for your kids. When they come home and they ask you, well, you know, we were talking about this in class today, or man, I was out at the mall or Crocker Park and I saw this. You know, what it what don't give them your opinion. Yeah. Don't just, don't even just tell them what the Christian belief on that is. Open God's word and show them what it looks like to take the topics and ideas of our day and go to God's word to see what God has said about those things. We need, we need to model that for our kids. This is the sword of the spirit. It is, it's the thing that cuts through all the lies.

SPEAKER_01: 53:10

When you come up on a baptism and you're identifying yourself with Christ, you need to know that that means there's no qualifiers in that. You know? If someone comes to you and says, Are you a conservative Christian? Don't you dare say yes. There's no qualifiers on Christ. He is your identity.

unknown: 53:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 53:32

No, I'm a Christian who happens to be conservative. Because if you say you're a conservative Christian, conservatism comes first and it forces Christ into it. So there's no liberal Christian, there's no left-leaning Christian. As soon as you say that, as soon as you accept that, then Christ is not your identity. And that's not truth. You can't live in that, and that's a whole nother conversation. So let's keep going. Okay, so number six, that seems to stop talking about the warfare stuff. And I think people make a huge mistake when they do that because number seven, Paul is not done writing. He's still writing. He says, pray at all times, being a constant attitude of prayer. My dad was talking to the Lord all the time, and I didn't I didn't know who was talking to who. And um, he would say something to me, and I'd just be quiet, and he goes, Hey, are you listening to me? And oh, were you talking to me? Yeah, yeah. And and other times I'd say, What was that dad? I'm not talking to you. You know, and so it was can you please distinguish who you're in the middle of a conversation with? But I love that because we need to be in a constant attitude of prayer, spirit-led prayer, and that sustains all of the armor in battle.

SPEAKER_02: 54:56

Yeah, you've you've given this illustration before. You know, when we open our eyes in the morning, it should be dear heavenly father, and when we close them before we go to bed, it should be in Jesus' name, amen. Absolutely. Live our life in a constant state of prayer. Man, one of the my kids have modeled this so well because you know, if we're driving down the road and an ambulance passes by or um a fire truck, um, they'll just, hey, something's going on. We need to pray for those people. And they'll write in the middle of the car and write, I mean, we'll be singing or telling stories, talking about our school day, whatever. And it's full on stop. We got to pray right now. And man, I love seeing that in them. And that's that's who we're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_01: 55:37

And that leads us right into number eight. He says, stay alert. You know, most people wouldn't even see that ambulance, other than the fact that, no, crap, I gotta slow down, you know. Spiritual vigilance is so important. You're watching for enemy tactics and you're watching for your opportunity to attack. And there, your kids saw that opportunity. Hey, we can pray for them. Satan wants their destruction. Let's pray for their salvation, whatever's going on. So uh that's number eight. Number nine, intercede for all the saints. This is being a good buddy in the foxhole. I think uh we think about the church, we think about our church. We think about Christians, we think about our friends in church. You know, we don't think about what's going on uh in Nigeria. Finally, uh President Trump has said, this is getting ridiculous over there. You guys better knock it off or I'll knock it off, uh, which is something that the UN is supposed to handle. And they haven't they haven't done anything. They're killing Christians left and right. And uh it's become a game for the for the enemy. So uh persistent prayer for the whole church unites and strengthens the whole body all across the planet, and we need to pray for them. Yeah, but I I don't know their name, and I like to be specific. Okay, be as specific as you can. I pray for the Chinese Christians, or I pray for that hemisphere's Christians, but you need to pray. Yeah, prayer still changes things, people. Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 57:21

We are we are in lockstep and arms-linked with with believers all over the world. Um and you know, it's one of the things that that we try to to preach here all the time is we're not in competition with other churches. We want other churches to succeed. It's not those Christians or that church versus our church. No. Um we need to be praying, especially for for those who are being persecuted. Um, you know, at the women's conference they uh supported the voice of the martyrs. Um and that is an organization who is all about trying to provide um resources for persecuted Christians around the world and give them some of the things that they need to try to survive and live. We need to be praying for those people. Um, pray for the missionaries who are right now going into some of the darkest places in the world to try to share the the light of Christ. We don't even think about those things. We're trying to, you know, Lord, you know, our benefits are being cut off and there's gonna be hungry people here, and we need to be praying about that. Right. But in the midst of all that, we we forget there are people out there who are, I mean, lit every day laying down themselves to go put themselves on the line just to share the gospel with one more person. Um, don't don't forget about them.

SPEAKER_01: 58:39

Yeah, and and Paul put that in there for a reason, guys. This is this is how you get prepared to stand and then you stand.

unknown: 58:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 58:50

You can't leave those last three off because he put it in there uh in the same conversation. So a lot of people ask me, and we'll wrap up with this, is well, how do you put on the belt of truth? How do you put on the breastplate of righteousness? Well, you do it in faith. My dad used to pray every morning. In Jesus' name, I put on the belt of truth. I strap on my breastplate of righteousness, and I put on the shoes of the gospel of peace. And he would just pray through it and he would declare it. Because these are declarations. You don't have to pray for that to happen and wait for an answer. God's like, You want the breastplate of righteousness? WHAM! Done. So these are declarations, and he would pray it every day. He had every day, and he'd leave the house praying.

SPEAKER_02: 59:41

I would say this pray it in faith and then live like it's true.

SPEAKER_01: 59:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 59:46

You know, I got the bell of truth on, I'm gonna live that way. I have the breastplate of righteousness on, so I'm gonna live that way. I uh can I get engaged in this sin? No. Why? Well, I got his righteousness on me, I can't do that. Um When you walk into a situation and it's chaotic, man, I'm walking in with the shoes apiece. Absolutely. Live like it. You put it on in faith and you live like it's true.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:09

That's great. Why don't you pray for us?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:12

Father, I thank you so much. Um again for what we got to celebrate on uh Sunday. All these people um saying I identify with Jesus and following you in baptism, Lord, we celebrate we celebrate their decision. And Father, I pray that you would protect each and every one of them as they step into this new life um of of obedience and just following you. And uh Lord, I I pray that this would just be the first step of many um as as they uh they learn to uh to discover more in Christ. Amen. And uh Father, I uh the things that we talked about today, these are these are big things, they're heavy things, they're things that we'd we'd rather ignore and just go on about our day. Um but Father, you have you have called us to engage in this thing. And I and Lord, we don't want people to be afraid. Um we know you've already won the battle. Amen. We know that none of this is outside of your purview or control, that you are still seated on the throne. And Lord, we thank you for all of that. And then, Father, I'm just asking that you would help prepare and equip us to be the people you've called us to be. We want to be people who walk in peace, who who have the belt of truth that holds all of these things together, who have the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation to to protect our minds. God, we want to live like these things are true. And so in faith, help us to put on the whole armor of God every day and live like it's a reality because it is. You've done it for us. And then, Father, we we don't want to forget these last things. Let us be the kind of people who pray at all times, who stay alert, who intercede for our brothers and sisters here and all over the world, knowing that when the church is strong, Father, we can push back against the darkness. We are not a passive organization, Father. We're storming the gates of hell. And we want to be that church in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen and amen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:57

Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Midweek Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast at a freshwind.org. If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321. We're so grateful for your support. Make sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the Midweek Podcast. Be blessed and have a great week.